It appears that the budget was designed to profit just the 1% of the PNM – their financiers, friends and family who are continually profiting from the ruling party’s dispensation of state contracts and have become the ultrawealthy
business elites with a lopsided political power.
The ridiculously small percentage of those supporting the 2023 Budget shows just how disconnected some of these individuals/organizations are towards the population in terms of the rising cost of living in every sector of their day-to-day lives.
If you are what is typically referred to as a middle-class family or worse a person living below the poverty line, Colm Imbert’s budget was not for you! It bought into focus the stark inequalities that are particularly acute to the average citizen/family. The small man was, once again, left with just the crumbs from the PNM and really this has been the continuation of PM Rowley’s policy “we have to allow the rich to get richer.”
It appears the budget was designed just for the 1% of the PNM – their financiers, friends and family who are continually profiting from their dispensation of state contracts and have become the ultrawealthy business elites with a lopsided political power.
Proof of this happened the very next day the Budget was presented when the Government “engaged” the private sector to provide affordable housing to middle-class earners.
This was further reinforced in the Budget when Imbert announced that the first target for the controversial property tax is residential properties. Commercial properties which are more expensive and can yield more taxes were left alone.
For the average income earner, this budget increased the price of gas, diesel and kerosene by $1.00 a liter; it contained provisions for an increase in public utility rates, introduction of property taxes, an 15% tax on certain food items.
Increasing the cost of fuels/diesel means that all types of transportation, goods and services will automatically go up and none of this will affect the business community as this increase will simply be passed on to the consumer.
These small but much publicized individuals and organizations were literally tripping over themselves to “endorse” these additional hardships that were being placed on citizens.
The Petroleum dealers urged citizens to “drive-less, carpool and use public transportation.”
TT Manufacturers’ Association (TTMA) head hailed the budget for boosting local businesses by assisting their ease of doing business, adding “The Government continues to signal the trust it places in the manufacturing sector to continue within a framework or public-private partnership to lead the charge on diversification of the economy…” How many manufacturers support this bold pronouncement by the TTMA Head?
And buoyed by some of these endorsements, PM Rowley insulted citizens by calling on the population “not to misbehave” over the Budget.
Paula Gopee-Scoon, who cannot produce one tangible deliverable under her tenure as Minister of Trade for the last seven years, speaking about the bus service in the country on television, said “there is an efficient schedule. I have never heard the public complaining about buses not coming!” This statement alone tells you just how disconnected this Minister is from the realities of what is happening.
Sports Minister Shamfa Cudjoe, one of the PNM’s recognized faces of contempt, incompetence and arrogance wants to know “why it is so hard (for citizens) to sacrifice”… apparently, she has forgotten that these citizens had to “sacrifice” $59K to pay her foreign roaming cell-phone charges. And to add insult to injury, Cudjoe lashed out at pensioners saying that some of them never worked a day in their lives and were still receiving a pension. What really does the PNM have against our senior citizens?
Dr Keston Perry summed up this budget perfectly, “A mediocre budget… for the rich by a callous Government. Show us that the Government is not following an ideology and the ideology we’re talking about is its focus on transferring wealth to the groups of people in our society who do need it, like those who are profiting off exploiting our resources.”
Capil Bissoon